English. A Biblical name, probably meaning "sorrowful" or "born of sorrow"; OT 1 Chronicles 4:9.

Jabez was very popular among Puritans and Dissenters in 17^th century England and for some time thereafter, but is less common today.

A correspondent [GGMcC] reports the name Jabes in a parish register in the English Midlands. It isn't certain whether this is a misreading of Jabus [q.v.], an abbreviation for Jacobus, or a clerk's spelling of Jabez. We favour the latter.